Veteran: America has lost what I fought for

The Register-Mail Galesburg.com ^ | Apr 04, 2008 @ 09:25 PM | Floyd Ragsdale

[Dominnae]

As with all guest opinions, I welcome a guest opinion offering an opposing view.

This is not the United States of America that I went to war for.

I put my life on the line in WWII, as did countless other soldiers, for the following beliefs: - The right to life, including the life of the unborn child.

- The right to pray to God in the classroom and the right to carry a Bible to school; also, to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and use the word God in the pledge.

- The right to display the Ten Commandments in public places. The 1st amendment to the Constitution in short states that Congress will not establish (or recognize) a specific religion and proclaim it a state religion. How can a politically-appointed judge toss the Bible and prayer out of the school classroom when words like these can even be understood by a grade school student? This nation was created on the trust of Christianity and almighty God, nothing else.

[Dominnae]

My Pop expressed some very similar sentiments before he passed.

I've been here awhile- this is first article. Apologies if I messed up! I saw this and had to share.

[ansel12]

I understand the major point, but his generation was a big part of the end of America.

Think of the sixties, who was age 36 to 55 in 1965?

Who ran everything, wrote everything, filmed everything?

Most of the worst of the destruction of America (legislatively) had ended by 1974, when boomers ranged from age ten to age 28.

[pepsionice]

Not to suffer the mighty flames of the FreeRepublic...but I served and fought...and didn’t do it for political reasons. I think I’m amongst a pretty hefty group...that fought to win...period. This is the sole difference that stands against almost every military on Earth...the majority of us fight for the conviction of winning...we won’t accept losing. That was proven in the Revolutionary War and has continued on today.

We’ve got an awful lot Americans who have made everything done today...as a political statement. The entire war in Iraq has turned into a Republican versus Democrat situation. If I brought up a 1,000 vets of the war...they will tell you nothing of politics...just of heroes and the rough life of being on the winning side.

We had to sit there this week and hear the CBS geeks tell us that 81 percent of the public think we are going in the wrong direction. The media has twisted both sides of the political world in such a manner...that even the public is in a state of mass confusion.

People now want to sit there and believe in former America...which they think was better. Things were better when Tom Brokaw was doing the news. Things were better when Three’s Company was on the air. Things were better when Ford made poorly-manufactured cars that broke in six months. Things were better when you had a choice of only butter or margarine...and none of these 48 other butter-like devices. Things were better when Hollywood Squires had Peter Marshall hosting and Jonathon Winters & Charo as guests. Things were better when there was no designated hitter in baseball. Things were better when being a Republican didn’t mean that you were a Baptist. Things were better when most folks didn’t know more than three senators total. Things were better when Curt Gowdy did baseball announcing on NBC. Things were better when gas cost 70 cents and your local station didn’t sell anything but actual car parts and oil items. Life was better when McDonalds only made burgers from real American beef. Life was better when it was just the New Jersey and New York Mafia running crime in America. Life was better when you only had three local channels and that stupid state educational channel available. Life was better when no one regulated wetlands, dry lands or tundra areas. Life was better when baseball players were drunks and not steroid users. Life was better when you didn’t care how many calories were in cheese or Campbell’s soup. Life was better when TV ran racy TV shows like Baywatch. Life was better when Jed Clampett could settle a score by just uttering a comment of “well....doggy”. Life was better when Ford only had six colors that you could have your car delivered in. Life was better when men hunted and fished...instead of sitting around the basement office today and interneting. Life was better when CBS didn’t have enough money to run stupid polls....so they actually squandered their funds on real news rather than inventing news.

So I will step down off my pulpit and be rendered flame after flame. But the simple truth is...we haven’t lost nothing...except our vision of ourselves.

[BamaAndy]

I respectfully disagree... we’ve lost a great deal of freedom because of our governments. From health ministers dictating smoking rules, food and what-not to drilling, construction, firearms, and even the Boy Scouts.

[Jet Jaguar]

“I’m ashamed of you, the politician, who have robbed our citizens of their freedom, little by little, over the past 50 years. I’m also ashamed of we, the voters, who have allowed our elected officials to steal our freedom from us.”

Good post.

[DieHard the Hunter]

Well said, to this old soldier. We would do well to heed.

[arroyo run]

“Under God” wasn’t added to the pledge until the 1950’s.

And a small, limited government wouldn’t permit Congress to rewrite the works of dead authors against the wishes of their family.

[LaineyDee]

It's still worth fighting for.....if we don't give up, lay down and roll over. There have been forces in place for several years......plotting and planning our demise as a nation.

We've allowed the MSM to dictate our policies, elect our officials and run us into the ground by giving coverage to only those things they deem newsworthy or fit their political agenda....and the GP has fallen for it hook, line and sinker.

FreeRepublic, Rush, Hannity are all a threat to the dark side....and it's keeping the battle alive.

[raybbr]

You want more immigrants in the U.S., legal or illegal, for political votes; greedy corporations want them for cheap labor.

Did our soldiers die so that millions could invade our country without so much as a single soldier on the border to repel them?

The "politicians" continue to allow our country to be invaded. They even want to reward the invaders with citizenship.

When will America wake up?

[raybbr]

People now want to sit there and believe in former America...which they think was better.

All those things you mentioned? Most of them are cultural affectations. Get down to the real truth about the nation.

Things were better when govt gave something in return for your taxes. Things were better when there were not millions of invaders marching in the streets demanding rights. Things were better when south american gangs weren't in almost every state.

Things were better when you could voice your opposition to a candidate within sixty days of an election without going to court. Things were better when NO ONE would have thought of forcing second graders to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in spanish.

Things were better when schools took a common sense approach to discipline instead of prosecuting children for giving an aspirin to a friend.

Things were better when govt didn't think only they had a right to teach your children and that home schooling was not a parental right.

The list goes on. Almost all of your points are cultural or, in the case of TV characters, non-existant. Good day.

[fmarion]

From my perspective, the Greatest Generation seems have been, sadly for them and us, not so great but full of human flaws. They emerged from depression and war alienated from historical America and fixated on the Almighty Dollar. They cluelessly sold us out (or acquiesced in the sale) in the 1960s to liberalism and mass immigration.

Sure they beat Japan and Germany, medium sized nation-states that could never have threatened our homeland, while they partnered-up with communism and the third world that can and will sweep us all away.

Thanks Greatest.

[iopscusa]

From Hillsdale College’ Impris, a terrific article on the history of US and a Limited and Just Government:
http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis.asp

[oh8eleven]

Most of the worst of the destruction of America (legislatively) had ended by 1974
Right on. My father and his two brothers were WWII vets and being of Irish descent (and coming out of Brooklyn) were all steadfast Democrats.
In their later years, all three rued the day they voted for Dem politicians like LBJ, Nelson Rockefeller and their ilk who gave us the "Great Society", MediCare, MediCaid, et al.

[oh8eleven]

Sure they beat Japan and Germany, medium sized nation-states that could never have threatened our homeland, while they partnered-up with communism and the third world that can and will sweep us all away. third world that can and will sweep us all away. Thanks Greatest.
Wow, don't look now but your public school education is showing. Your ignorance and ungratefulness belong on DU.

[Graybeard58]

“Under God” wasn’t added to the pledge until the 1950’s.

I caught that too, I well remember the confusion it caused my young and mushy mind when it was changed between my first and second year in school.

Every day my first grade teacher led us in the pledge, the second grade teacher did not. Third grade teacher did require it.

Further, I went to public school in a fairly conservative and religious area in southern Missouri for 12 years and never once heard anyone praying in class, student or teacher, in a time when it was legal to do so.

[snoringbear]

“I understand the major point, but his generation was a big part of the end of America.”

You nailed it. This subject is sort of “the elephant in the room” when it comes to our “Greatest Generation”. This WWII generation is who spawned and raised the sixties and seventies “Me Generation” arguably our worst generation. Sadly, when the Vietnam War came around, the WWII generation who was at the apex of their power in politics and business during that period, ensure through various legislations and decisions such as draft deferments, not calling up the Reserves, etc, that their precious babies would not have to go serve. The epitimey of hypocrisy for sure...

[popdonnelly]

I loved every word of it. Our politicians have become no more than professional hucksters who manipulate us.

[popdonnelly]

The people most involved with our Federal government are the people who want money from it. Just take a look at Washington, D.C.

[B4Ranch]

>We’ve allowed the MSM to dictate our policies, elect our officials and run us into the ground by giving coverage to only those things they deem newsworthy or fit their political agenda....and the GP has fallen for it hook, line and sinker.<

Very true and if you think the few thousand FReepers are going to change it you are wrong because the AMERICAN business world is NOT on our side either. They want the illegal aliens here as a source of cheap labor, they also see the queers a a source of big money. Don’t think so? McDonalds just announced that they have signed onto a nationwide effort to promote “gay” and “lesbian” business ventures. We, us straight, normal, working people are the minority when it comes to political power these days. Without the media on your side, you lose. Simple, huh?

So until we are willing to get off our asses, get out in the streets and make some newsworthy issues that get TV coverage, our country will continue to go down the drain.

[Luke21]

I'm as pessimistic as the next person, but last time I looked I was sitting at a computer drinking my morning coffee in my jammies and reading everybody complaining about how crappy things are.

My life is pretty good, and I'd like to thank our vets for that.